New Romney and Littlestone-on-Sea was a railway station which lay in between the villages of

New Romney New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, w ...

and

Littlestone-on-Sea Littlestone-on-Sea is a small coastal village close to New Romney in Kent, England. It was established in the 1880s by Sir Robert Perks as a resort for the gentry, at the point of the local lifeboat station. At low tide, a World War II Mulberr ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The station opened in 1884 and closed in 1967.

Early years

The station was opened by the Lydd Railway Company on 19 June 1884, the first day of passenger services on its 3-mile branch to New Romney from its existing line between

Appledore Appledore may refer to: Places England * Appledore, Kent ** Appledore (Kent) railway station * Appledore, Mid Devon, near Tiverton * Appledore, Torridge, North Devon, near Bideford U.S.A. * Appledore Island, off the coast of Maine In fiction * App ...

and

Dungeness Dungeness () is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of a cuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh. Dungeness spans Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, the hamlet ...

. At the time, a Victorian block of houses and hotels had been constructed in Littlestone-on-Sea in the hope of creating a seaside resort. Both railway branches were served by the same train from Appledore; in some cases it went to either New Romney or Dungeness, in others, passengers for New Romney were left at

Lydd Lydd is a town and electoral ward in Kent, England, lying on Romney Marsh. It is one of the larger settlements on the marsh, and the most southerly town in Kent. Lydd reached the height of its prosperity during the 13th century, when it was a co ...

while the train proceeded to Dungeness with the Lydd stationmaster who would sell tickets to passengers alighting there. The train then returned to Lydd, dropped the Dungeness passengers there, and transported the New Romney passengers to their destination. The service to New Romney in 1905 comprised eight weekday departures from Appledore - four exclusively serving New Romney and four serving New Romney and Dungeness. There was a single Sunday working to New Romney.

Station buildings

New Romney and Littlestone station, which had the suffix on-sea added in 1888, was a small two-platformed terminus equipped with an equally small goods yard. The main station building was located on the down platform, while the goods shed was just to the south-west behind the platform together with coal wharves, an end loading dock, a

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

and other small buildings. In later years the up platform was hardly used other than as a livestock loading dock.Subterranea Britannica, "New Romney".
/ref> In 1927, one of the sidings was extended across the road to deliver coal to the depot of the newly opened

Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) is a gauge light railway in Kent, England, operating steam and internal combustion locomotives. The line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney ...

(RHDR) which was to open its own New Romney station here.

Decline and closure

In the 1920s the long-awaited seaside development began in earnest. The Southern Railway (which had taken over the line upon the 1923 railway grouping) realigned the New Romney branch nearer the coast in 1937 and provided two intermediate stations -

Greatstone-on-Sea Greatstone is a beach-side town, the third town up from the "point" of the Romney Marsh area of Kent. It is situated near the largest town there, New Romney in Kent, England. Although permission was given for a company to construct large numbers o ...

and

Lydd-on-Sea Lydd-on-Sea is a modern village, mostly built after World War II, which consists mainly of bungalows built along the Dungeness coastal road south of Greatstone, Kent, England. The Southern Railway opened a railway station here in 1937 but was c ...

. However, the Southern had been slow in reacting to the coastal development and the RHDR had already been operating from more conveniently sited stations for the best part of a decade. Furthermore, the pattern of services remained more or less the same until 1952 when it increased to nine services from Appledore to New Romney (including two through trains from Ashford), and four services on Sundays from Ashford. In addition, two direct services from

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

were laid on for summer Saturdays. Following the electrification of the line to Dover in 1962 and the prohibition of steam on South Eastern metals, the New Romney branch was served by diesel-electric sets with either six-car or three-car units. Although through services from Charing Cross ceased, services remained relatively regular with nine departures from Ashford and two from Appledore on weekdays. The New Romney branch was listed for closure in the

Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...

but survived until the

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

Barbara Castle Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, (''née'' Betts; 6 October 1910 – 3 May 2002), was a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1979, making her one of the longest-serving female MPs in Bri ...

announced her approval to close the

to New Romney Branch and passenger services ceased on 6 March 1967.

Present day

Although the trackbed from Romney Junction towards New Romney is easily traceable, nothing remains of New Romney and Littlestone-on-Sea station which has been obliterated by a small trading estate. The site of the siding to the RHDR is now occupied by the west part of its New Romney station carriage sidings.White, H.P., op. cit. p. 171.

References

{{coord, 50.9847, 0.9531, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Disused railway stations in Kent Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1967 Beeching closures in England 1884 establishments in England 1967 disestablishments in England